Chapter 2612 - 2585: Division of Labor

Censor Liang sat by the fire, extended his feet to take off his shoes, and an unspeakable smell wafted over. Bai Shan fanned the air and, after changing his position, sat back down.

Then County Magistrate Tang also took off his shoes and even removed his socks.

Bai Shan looked at them and asked, "You still have socks?"

County Magistrate Tang sighed, "The ones we wore before have all been washed and left to dry in the city."

Bai Shan frowned, and for the sake of his nose, he still gave them three pairs of new socks.

Everyone saw this and immediately took them with joy, laughing, "Lord Bai is indeed particular."

Bai Shan took out things from his bundle, first placing the herbal sachet he had been wearing all day by the fire to slowly release the aroma, driving away the mosquitoes that kept buzzing around them.

Then he took out a bottle of ointment and opened it to sniff.

Tang He saw this and immediately asked, "What’s this?"

Bai Shan handed him the ointment and said, "It’s for refreshing and invigorating. I got quite a headache from the smell."

Tang He opened it and sniffed, feeling much more refreshed instantly. He smiled and handed it to Censor Liang and Censor Ren, who were looking eagerly at him, saying, "You really have a lot of good stuff with you."

The two censors nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes, Lord Bai must have a wise wife."

Bai Shan ignored them. These past two days, they’ve been using a lot of his stuff. They seemed genuinely austere, but if someone brought things, they would still use them.

Lord Tang walked barefoot on the grass, washed his hands in a puddle, then took a bun roasted by his attendant, casually sitting on the grass, asking, "Do you think we should enter the village again tomorrow?"

Censor Liang said, "This is a large village with 167 households. If there weren’t so few nearby villages, it could become a big market. It’s fortunate the Chief stopped them today; otherwise, who knows if their hoes would have struck us."

Censor Ren sneered, "Do you really think the Chief is so kind? If we died, they would be complicit in rebellion, and things would become more unmanageable. Do you think they would have stopped them?"

He said, "I think the real culprits here are those two Chiefs. Look, we’ve visited many villages these days. Most could be appeased, and though they believed rumors and were quite dissatisfied with the court, they dared not and could not bear to uproot young seedlings. Yet this whole big village, look to the side."

Censor Ren said with deep pain, "Such good seedlings, already grown so tall, and they were willing to uproot them. I can’t believe the Chiefs aren’t stirring things up."

Bai Shan also glanced at the field beside them. Though it was dark, the moonlight reflecting off the water in the field allowed them to see the situation. Most of the seedlings in this field had been uprooted.

He sighed; uprooting seedlings at this time meant they couldn’t even replant.

Lord Tang said while chewing on his bun, "So tomorrow, we must find a way to divert the two Chiefs here and then enter the village to talk to the villagers."

Bai Shan asked, "How do we divert them?"

Just as Lord Tang was about to speak, a military guard ran up and said, "My lord, the two Chiefs have arrived."

Lord Tang then smiled, "Here they are now."

He ordered for the two Chiefs to be brought up.

They did not come alone; some young and strong men followed, carrying two large baskets.

Bai Shan sniffed and whispered, "It smells like buns and dumplings."

The two Chiefs trotted up, and upon arrival, immediately knelt before Tang He, kowtowing repeatedly, "Today we startled My Lord, we are guilty, we are gravely guilty."

Tang He, not bothering with shoes and socks, quickly stepped forward to help them up, righteously saying, "Old man, what are you talking about? If it weren’t for your intervention today, we might have been beaten to death by the mob."

With anger on his face, he said, "A bunch of unruly folk, daring to lay hands on court officials. Once I report back to the emperor, the forbidden army will be sent to wipe them out."

The two Chiefs’ faces stiffened, and they quickly said, "Pardon us, My Lord, they are ignorant. Seeing so many officials enter the village, they thought it was a forceful land retrieval, so they lost their heads. Please give them a chance; they would never dare to be rebels."

Lord Tang frowned.

The Chief immediately moved closer, discreetly slipping a money pouch into Lord Tang’s hand, whispering, "Please, My Lord, be magnanimous..."

Lord Tang squeezed the pouch, feeling it was silver, and it wasn’t copper for sure, so it was quite substantial.

The Chief’s generosity showed they were quite wealthy.

Lord Tang directly tucked it into his sleeve.

The Chief, seeing him accept it, was immediately delighted and quickly instructed them to bring up the two large baskets, open the lids, and let everyone see the steaming buns and dumplings inside. Bending over, he said, "My Lords, you haven’t eaten yet, right? The village is poor and has nothing presentable, so we prepared some buns and dumplings. I hope My Lords don’t disdain them."

Tang He swallowed, although he really wanted to eat, he dared not. So, he nodded with a smile, "This is already very good, you may leave it."

He said, "Since the elder has pleaded, I will give them another chance. Tomorrow morning, both of you will come with me back to the Censorate to meet someone. By then, there are some documents you need to sign, so I have an account when I return."

He said pointedly, "I traveled thousands of miles from the capital to here to gain merit. If the task is not accomplished, anyone who makes my life difficult, I will make theirs difficult."

The two Chiefs immediately said, "Yes, yes, we understand." Grumbling inside, how did a hundred bli from the capital become thousands of miles?

Lord Tang let them leave.

After they left, a government clerk brought a dog up and pulled out two buns and dumplings from the bottom of the baskets, giving them to the dog. Everyone covered the baskets again, swallowing their saliva.

A scribe from the Censorate couldn’t help asking, "My Lord, aren’t we being overly cautious? There are so many of us, and we’re court officials. Would they dare poison us?"

Lord Tang took the money pouch from his sleeve, tossed it, and handed it to Censor Ren to note on the account, saying, "Being a little cautious isn’t too wrong. From childhood to now, I’ve seen too many tragedies caused by carelessness."

Bai Shan then asked, "Who’s going into the village tomorrow?"

Lord Tang smiled at him, "What does my student think?"

"I can go in," Bai Shan said, "I looked around today and remembered the main troublemakers. I’ll avoid them when I go back in, but you’ll need to leave most of the people with me."

Lord Tang looked at the two censors. They were there to continue investigating the matters in Qizhou and also to keep an eye on them, so one had to stay.

Censor Ren thought for a moment and said, "I will stay."

Lord Tang nodded, "Alright, I will only take two guards and my attendant, the rest will stay with you."